Posts tagged ‘food’

It felt so good to be able to plan GOOD meals with scrumptious stuff, and not just buy the least amount of food to not starve.
Even in as little time as 10 days, I started getting conditioned.

Tonight, for instance, I walked through the cheese section at Whole Foods and looked at $12 cheddars from Scotland. It felt perverse, actually, to even think of spending that kind of money after eating lentils and skipping meals.

My plan was to stay in and kind of get others to join me eating lentils and avoiding cover charges.
But my challenge didn’t appear attractive and on Saturday and Sunday night I ended up on a barstool with someone buying me drinks, which just made me feel like a mooch.

So I left off the story when I had $10.

But then Monday came about and I was starving so I bought a $5.50 burrito for breakfast.

$4.50 left.

This morning I ate oatmeal at work and then spent $3.00 for lunch on a piece of pizza.

$1.50. Not enough to buy another meal.

So I raided my food cabinet and found a can of soybeans and cooked them in stewed tomatoes. It didn’t look like a lot of food, so I found some stale tortilla chips (too old to eat) and put them in the pot thinking I’d get free calories out of them.

Tomorrow is my last day in self-imposed poverty. I think I can get through with my left-overs, by eating some more oatmeal at work, and maybe buying a bagel or something.

After another run of spending way too much money on dinner and drinks with friends, I decided to force myself into ten days of “poverty”.

I decided on Monday that I would make it ten days on the money in my pocket ($45).

(I blew all but about $80 in my checking account and decided not to move any over from savings for the below exercise. I do have a credit card to bail me out at any moment if needed, but I’m hoping to make it through without it).

I am embracing this as a challenge like climbing a mountain, and I realize there are some design flaws here (I have a place to live, a car, some food at home, so this is not REAL poverty), but nonetheless, for me to live on $45 for ten days takes some work.

So here is how it has gone:

First, I had to get to JFK. Fortunately, I had a Metro Card that had enough to get me there free.

But then, back in SF, I had to cough up $5.70 to get from BART to my apartment, taking me down to about $39.

The next morning I woke up really hungry (having skipped dinner) and so went out and bought a burrito for $5.50.

$34.

That night (Tues) I used some lentils and canned tomatoes to make a large lentil stew.

I ate that for the next two meals and then started really wanting something else.

Yesterday (Wed) I spent about $10 on a sandwich, macaroni salad and a pickle. (love pickles). I knew it was a reckless decision, but my cravings got the best of me.

$24

Last night, not desiring the lentils, I spent another $10 on a burrito and chips.

$14.

Today, realizing how fast I am burning through my money, I had the lentils for both breakfast and lunch. Then I raided the snack cabinet in the office and had 2 bags of potato chips, a bag of peanuts, and a pack of Starburst. Oh, then a chocolate bar.

I’m planning on using about half of the remaining money to make up some large, hearty meals (pasta, stews).

If I want to drink this wkend, I am going to steal a few bottles of wine from work. I’ve been eyeing my change jar, and I’m not quite sure how that fits into the rules of the game. Found money or cheating?

Hopefully after this exercise is over with, I’ll be less of a loose cannon with money.

I expect that I’ll slowly start heading back to my old ways, but I think it will take some time. I’ve had a few stretches of time where I’ve been fairly hungry and didn’t have enough to be impulsive, which is the luxury you have when you have cash in your pocket.

I’ll be updating this tomorrow, but I expect a slow day of expenditures since we get a free lunch at work.

“All told, livestock are responsible for 18% of greenhouse-gas emissions worldwide, according to the U.N. — more than all the planes, trains and automobiles on the planet. And it’s going to get a lot worse. As living standards rise in the developing world, so does its fondness for meat and dairy. Annual per-capita meat consumption in developing countries doubled from 31 pounds in 1980 to 62 pounds in 2002, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, which expects global meat production to more than double by 2050. That means the environmental damage of ranching would have to be cut in half just to keep emissions at their current, dangerous level.

It isn’t enough to improve mileage standards or crack down on diesel truck emissions . . . Eventually, the United States and other countries are going to have to clean up their agricultural practices, while consumers can do their part by cutting back on red meat.”

But you never hear anyone saying that being green means not eating, or at least cutting back on, eating meat.